Chapter 3

Harry woke slowly to a dim room, strange symbols glowing on the walls. Slowly scooting back against the wall to sit up, he found his glasses and clothing folded on the small table beside the low cot he was on.

“Ah, you're awake. Good. Drink this.” A dark glass potion vial was shoved under his nose before he could even react to the other presence in the room with him. Well trained by Madam Pomphrey, Harry obeyed automatically. If they goblins were going to kill me with a potion, wouldn't have bothered with the rituals. Bottoms up, Harry.

The taste was vile, coating the inside of his mouth with a chalky residue. “What was that?” he managed to get out, trying to keep whatever liquid torture he just swallowed down.

“A post-ritual tonic. It is to help your body heal and reach equilibrium after all of the magic used. Usually these things take an hour. Yours took three. You're bound to be a little groggy and your magic should take some time to settle.

“There is water on the table for you. Take your time and when  you are ready, I will take you back to Bloodflick's office.” With that, the goblin that Harry vaguely recognized as his guide down to the ritual stepped out of the recovery room and closed the door.

Filling the small cup from the pitcher, Harry drank until his mouth felt less like he'd been forced to like the blackboard erasers clean. Changing from the linen shift he'd been instructed to wear for the horrible time on the stone floor in a glowing circle covered in more of those strange glowing symbols back into his own clothes, he cringed. He hated his clothes, Dudley's clothes. They made him feel every inch the Freak that they called him. Unwanted, uncared for, an unnecessary burden.

Slowly, he turned the knob and stepped out to follow the goblin back through the warren of stone corridors to Bloodflick’s office.

Miss Ana was still waiting when Harry was ushered back into Bloodflick's office. It was still as terrifying the second time seeing it. Taking in the large desk and chairs and the weapons mounted on the walls, Hagrid's warning about the goblins sprang to the front of his mind. “yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that. Never mess with goblins, Harry.”

“Welcome back, Mr. Potter. Please take a seat.” Bloodflick indicated the chair next to Miss Ana as he withdrew a red leather folio from his previously empty In Box.

“Now, as requested, full inheritance and health scans on one Mr. Harry Potter. Unless otherwise indicated by you, Mr. Potter, I cannot share the contents of this folder with anyone but yourself.”

“Oh. You can tell Miss Ana.” Harry looked over at the woman, or witch, that had spent the summer trying to care for him. “She is the only one though.”

“Of course, Mr. Potter. Very well. Your Inheritance Test.” Bloodflick opened the cover of the folio and passed the uppermost parchment over to Harry.

Inheritance Blood Test

Hadar James Potter Black

Date of Birth: July 31, 1980

Father: James Fleamont Potter (deceased, October 31, 1981)

Father: Sirius Orion Black - Blood-adopted

Mother: Lily Rose Potter nee Evans (deceased, October 31, 1981)

Maternal Uncle: Severus Tobias Snape

Heir to Ancient and Noble House of Black

Heir to Ancient and Noble House of Peverell

Heir to Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin (adoption via soul-shard)

Certified by Ulrig III, Gringott's Ritualist

 “Um…” Harry handed the parchment over to Miss Ana. Too much to sort out on that. “What’s that bit about a soul shard? How does that make me the Heir of Slytherin?”

Bloodflick snapped the parchment out of Miss Ana's suddenly slack fingers.

“Is this like the diary?” Harry thought back over what Tom Riddle had said, down in the Chamber. “A memory,” said Tom Riddle… “a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages” … “we even look something alike…”

“Harry? What diary?” Miss Ana looked like he’d slapped her.

“The one I stabbed with the basilisk fang?” Harry cringed. “Sorry, not important right now.”

“Not import – not… sorry, Harry. But yes! Very important. A basilisk?” Miss Ana stuttered, voice rising. She didn’t reach the ear-piercing screech of Mrs. Weasley the previous summer, but it was so strange coming from the calm, stoic Miss Ana that Harry wasn’t sure how to respond.

Luckily, Bloodflick intervened. “I would like to discuss this basilisk with you later, Mr. Potter.

“But, back to the soul-shard. Let me see if there is more information on your medical history…” Bloodflick started flipping pages of parchment in the folio, mumbling to himself. “Ah. Yes. Here we are. Soul shard, external origin, entry point at curse scar, absorption into primary soul incomplete, completed via an Anima Ligatura Ritual as unable to safely extract without death or serious mental injury to mind and/or body…”

Harry was reeling. “Part of Voldemort’s soul is in my scar? Can you get it out?!”

“Unfortunately, no, Mr. Potter. It is entwined with your own soul, you have absorbed it, incorporated it into your own being. It cannot be removed. It was an incomplete bonding that your soul and magic were working to finalize. From your medical scans, Ulrig was able to finalize the bond. It is now completely your soul at this point, any gifts that may have been passed to you with the shard are part of you, same as if you had been born with them.”

“So, the reason that being in Quirrell’s class, being around Voldemort at school…that wasn’t because of the scar?” That didn’t line up with what Dumbledore had told him in first and second year.

Bloodflick nodded, finger running down the long parchment of his medical scan. “The reason for that appears to be a reaction to the Potions and bindings, memory modification put on him wearing down and/or being reapplied. Those have all been removed. Your Heir rings should have protections against further issues.”

“…Garlic fumes and brazier also didn’t help with the headaches,” Harry grumbled under his breath.

----

Anathema felt frozen. She read through each document that Harry passed to her after barely looking at them, mind still stuck on Harry’s reaction to his name. No one had thought to tell him his actual name? And a basilisk? Adoption by soul-shard. What had happened to this poor child? Vault lists and inventories were skipped over for another time. She didn't even glance at the full medical scan, the thick stack of parchment made her curse something, everything.

Glancing over at Harry, her heart stopped. The broken look on his face. Someone else knew how bad it was. He didn't let his hope rise that anything would happen, nothing ever happened. Not this time. Anathema pulled herself out of her spiraling thoughts.

“Bloodflick, please start an inquiry into this.” Harry snapped back to attention as Miss Ana tapped the thick medical scan. “Also, the vaults. No one should have been accessing those funds with his only living parent incarcerated and no provisions on record for alternate guardianship.”

“I agree. At most, the only person who should have had custody and access was Master Snape. But, as you can see from the records, he is not listed anywhere as doing so.

“The parties responsible for this will be dealt with, madam.” The goblin was rapidly making notes as he reviewed the documents on his desk with violent red ink. “Anything else?”

“Yes, please. Given the unauthorized activity on the Potter Trust Vault, I would like you to please set one up, the same as my other children's.” Miss Ana instructed, waving off Harry's protests that it wasn't necessary.

“Of course. Sign here.” Bloodflick laid out several sheets of parchment for Miss Ana to read over as Harry's head continued to spin. A small gold key and pouch was pressed into his hand a few moments later.

“Harry, this pouch will hold what I have allotted for you from this vault. I'm not sure how long the audit will take on your other Trust Vault and, in the meantime, I want you to have the security of a small allowance for spending money like other children at school. Do you understand?” Miss Ana's eyes held Harry's steady with their dark gaze. It was like Snape’s, he realized, sharp and knowing. Harry swallowed heavily. “Yes, ma'am.” Miss Ana's eyebrow quirked but with a slow nod to him, she thanked Bloodflick for his time and they took their leave.